After 10 years of acting as America’s second land army, the U.S. Marine Corps will be slimmed down to “middleweight” fighter status, its leader says.

Now, details from an internal Marine review of forces offer a glimpse at how the leaner fighting machine will look.

As the Corps goes from 202,000 to 187,000 people after the end of fighting in Afghanistan, the trimming will hit virtually every major command — and likely will be felt in San Diego County, the West Coast hub for Marine ground and air forces.

“It’s going to affect San Diego to an extent,” said Andrew Lubin, independent defense analyst and author of books on the Marines.

“The cuts in the artillery and infantry will be across the board. I don’t know what regiments they are going to cut back, and neither do they,” he said.

“But if you look at the Marine Corps, it’s roughly 40 percent at Camp LeJeune, 40 percent at Camp Pendleton, 20 percent in Okinawa, (Japan.) You figure it should go approximately in that ratio.”

Combat ground forces will be thinned out, including cutting infantry battalions from 27 to 24, cannon artillery battalions from nine to seven and armored companies from 10 to eight, according to information recently released by the Marine Corps’ Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va.

Camp Pendleton is home to the 1st Marine Division, the oldest, largest, and most decorated division of the Corps.

This 22,000-person group has provided many of the “grunts,” a term of honor to Marines, who fought in Iraq and now Afghanistan. Its regiments date back to 1911.

In the aviation realm, the Corps plans to eliminate four headquarters for support units, including one in the reserves.

Miramar Marine Corps Air Station is home of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, including Marine Wing Support Group 37, led by a colonel.

Today’s logistics groups will be flattened and parts will be reassigned to infantry and expeditionary units.

Despite these cuts, the Marine also plan to increase two small specialty sectors — “cyber” jobs by 67 percent and special operations positions by 44 percent.

The Marine Corps has been reevaulating its shape since at least last August, when Defense Secretary Robert Gates gave a speech in San Francisco saying that he had called for a “force structure review.”

“The perception being that they have become too heavy, too removed from their expeditionary, amphibious roots and the unique skill sets those missions require,” Gates said, adding that some battle-hardened Marines had never actually stepped foot on a boat.

Fast forward to last month, when new Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos in another San Francisco speech described how he sees his Corps shaping up.

Amos said he is going to “rightsize” his force, likening it to a middleweight boxer who can push his weight up or down based on training and need.

“Larger than special operations forces, but lighter and more expeditionary than conventional Army units, we engage and respond quickly – often from the sea – with enough force to carry the day upon arrival,” he said.

Amos said his Marines got used to a “culture of plenty” during the past decade of war, but added that he is rededicating them to “our frugal roots.”

“Marines have historically been known as ‘the Penny Pinchers,’ ” Amos said. “At the end of the day, Congress and the American people know that the Marine Corps is a value and that we only ask for what we truly need.”

The nation decided to bulk up the Marine Corps in response to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

This subtraction of 15,000 — which won’t begin until after troops return from Afghanistan, possibly as late as 2015 — puts the service closer to where it was a decade ago, said John Pike, founder of Globalsecurity.org, who downplayed the significance of the shifts outlined. Prior to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Marines numbered 172,600.

“The overall drawdown in head count is predictable,” Pike said. “All the other changes are in the ballpark of the normal churn that any large organization is always experiencing.”